2013 is now upon us, and like many a blogger over the past week or so, I’m thinking and writing about my 2012 in books. Like every year, there were good and bad points.
The Good:
- Making friends with more bloggers, writers and publishers – who would have thought these interesting people would want to speak to nerdy me?
- Receiving some fantastic books to read that I would not have normally picked up, which opened my mind to some great new authors
- The local library accepting my read books to be put on the shelf, so more people can read them!
- Winning some awesome book competitions!
The Bad:
- My ereader having a strange deletion attack, necessitating the reorganisation of every collection!
- Got quite sick early in the year (but this meant time for reading in between naps)
- Getting a bit behind in my reviews
I managed to review 89 books in 2012 and read 96 books (reviews pending for those seven). I’m still reading a lot of new releases (I can’t resist a shiny new book) but packed in some classics, non-fiction and travel books. I didn’t read as many eBooks as I would have liked (due to above random craziness) but there’s always 2013!
I don’t want to pick favourites from my reads, because all my reads for 2012 taught me something, but here’s some that I really enjoyed and would recommend:
- The Group by Mary McCarthy
- Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
- Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
- The Restaurant of Love Regained by Ito Ogawa
- Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May
- The Harbour by Francesca Brill
- Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
- The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
In terms of most popular posts, people wanted to read my reviews of Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer and The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
I didn’t do any challenges in 2012 (except for one I started and I’m not mentioning it because I didn’t read a single book on the list). I’m still thinking about challenges for 2013, but my challenge to myself is to get the book stacks back into one room! (The bookshelves are overflowing). I hope to have many new and exciting books to share with you in 2013 – happy new year!
Sam Still Reading 
Happy New Year! The only one I’ve read on your favourites (so far!) is The Group, which I *loved*.
Happy new year, Sam!! Looks like you read some amazing books in 2012, I loved The Group 🙂 Bad e-reader! Hope you got everything back in order. Have a wonderful 2013!
Happy new year! I actually have The Group on my reading list for January. I cannot wait to get started. And I, too, enjoyed Gillespie and I a lot last year. I hope this year brings you much more of the positive things you listed.
Happy New Year!!
The secret keeper is one of my best readings of the year too! I haven’t read the rest. And 96 is a great number, congratulations!!